MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

7/6 Dempster to start Sunday

Ryan Dempster, on the DL since June 16, will be activated Sunday and close the Cubs first half, starting the series finale against the Mets. The Cubs will make a roster move at that time. Chris Volstad (0-7, 7.94 ERA) had been scheduled to pitch. On Friday, Dempster threw on flat ground, and passed all the tests.

“He says he feels as good as he has all year,” Dale Sveum said Friday. “His bullpens are as sharp as anybody’s are going to be. It’s just a matter of some durability issues maybe. The guy keeps himself in phenomenal shape. That’s one part of the decision. If it was somebody other than Ryan Dempster, you probably wouldn’t be thinking about this.”

Dempster (3-3, 2.11 ERA) will be limited to 80 pitches, Sveum said.

“It’s a tough [injury] to gauge because it’s just a matter of how I felt,” Dempster said. “I started to feel better, especially the last week or so. It responded well today from throwing the bullpen today.”

Of course, as soon as Dempster returns, so will the trade rumors around the right-hander, who is in the last year of his contract with the Cubs.

“That’s OK,” Dempster said. “They’ve been there. That stuff doesn’t bother me. I’ll just try to do my job the best I can and let those things take care of themselves. I’ll focus on going out there and taking it one start at a time, one pitch at a time and just go from there.”

– Carrie Muskat

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2 Comments

So glad Dempster is back to pitch on Sunday. When Volstad pitches it
is too hard to watch us lose every time. Now we can enjoy the game on
Sunday. I wish Volstad well and hope he can get his pitches back but
for now I don’t wish to see him start any games.

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